Both of these playoff contenders came into this game with the same overall record and desperately needed to win this game to keep alive in the AL Wild Card race. Tonight the O’s won by the feathers on their chinny chin chin’s by a score of 3-2. Zach Britton who was 1-0 with a 9.00 ERA versus Detroit in his career earned the win and continues his undefeated streak.

Britton pitched seven scoreless innings giving up six hits, three walks and five strikeouts earning his second win of the season. Before this game Britton’s last three of five starts have been no decisions, his last win was on July 22nd in Cleveland. Pedro Strop came in the eighth and gave up two runs but got out of the inning thanks to bad baserunning by Jhonny Peralta, who drove in the two runs, was tagged out in a run down, would there have been a rally if not for this mistake? Jim Johnson came in the game in the bottom of the ninth to earn his 36th save.

Chris Davis hit a 3-run homer in the seventh inning to get the first runs of the game off of Detroit starter Rick Porcello. Porcello now goes to 1-3 in his career versus the O’s with this loss. This was Davis’ first homer against the Tigers since September 19,2008. Speaking of homers Adam Jones is homerless in his last 79 at-bats, he went 1-4 with a single in the game. The O’s had more strikeouts then hits in this game by one with nine, which is still one-third of the outs in a game, does this spell trouble for the O’s still?

A two-game losing streak is broken by the O’s and they now step into the second Wild Card spot tied with Tampa Bay for the top spot, Detroit falls one game behind the O’s in the race. The “rubber” game to decide the winner of this series will played at 1:05 pm ET, Wei-Yin Chen (BAL) vs. Doug Fister (DET).